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Author
Topic: I need some wedding help (Read 3479 times)

Ok... I am in charge of a "reading" for our wedding. It has to be 2 and a half minutes long. I would like it to recognize our lives, our future and our trust and love.

Who's got some ideas?

We are NOT spiritual people, so no bible passages. Come on fellow heathens I need some help!!!

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LIFE is not a race to the grave with the intention of arriving safelyin a pretty and well-preserved body, but, rather to skid in broadside,thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming--WOW! WHAT ARIDE!!!

Well I found this and HAD to post it. This would be perfect for a same sex marriage WHEN it becomes legal! I love this one.

From Plato's Symposium

Humans have never understood the power of Love, for if they had they would surely have built noble temples and altars and offered solemn sacrifices; but this is not done, and most certainly ought to be done, since Love is our best friend, our helper, and the healer of the ills which prevent us from being happy.

To understand the power of Love, we must understand that our original human nature was not like it is now, but different. Human beings each had two sets of arms, two sets of legs, and two faces looking in opposite directions. There were three sexes then: one comprised of two men called the children of the Sun, one made of two women called the children of the Earth, and a third made of a man and a woman, called the children of the Moon. Due to the power and might of these original humans, the Gods began to fear that their reign might be threatened. They sought for a way to end the humansí insolence without destroying them.

It was at this point that Zeus divided the humans in half. After the division the two parts of each desiring their other half, came together, and throwing their arms about one another, entwined in mutual embraces, longing to grow into one. So ancient is the desire of one another which is implanted in us, reuniting our original nature, making one of two, and healing the state of humankind.

Each of us when separated, having one side only, is but the indenture of a person, and we are always looking for our other half. Those whose original nature lies with the children of the Sun are men who are drawn to other men, those from the children of the Earth are women who love other women, and those from the children of the Moon are men and women drawn to one another. And when one of us meets our other half, we are lost in an amazement of love and friendship and intimacy, and would not be out of the otherís sight even for a moment. We pass our whole lives together, desiring that we should be melted into one, to spend our lives as one person instead of two, and so that after our death there will be one departed soul instead of two; this is the very expression of our ancient need. And the reason is that human nature was originally one and we were a whole, and the desire and pursuit of the whole is called Love.

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LIFE is not a race to the grave with the intention of arriving safelyin a pretty and well-preserved body, but, rather to skid in broadside,thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming--WOW! WHAT ARIDE!!!

Well this is kinda difficult, without really knowing you and the lucky gal, but poetry's always good, and these are pieces I rate for weddings etc:

THE PASSIONATE SHEPHERD TO HIS LOVE (Christopher Marlowe)

Come live with me and be my love,And we will all the pleasures proveThat valleys, groves, hills, and fields,Woods, or steepy mountain yields.And we will sit upon rocks,Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks,By shallow rivers to whose fallsMelodious birds sing madrigals.

And I will make thee beds of rosesAnd a thousand fragrant poises,A cap of flowers, and a kirtleEmbroidered all with leaves of myrtle;

A gown made of the finest woolWhich from our pretty lambs we pull;Fair lined slippers for the cold,With buckles of the purest gold;

A belt of straw and ivy buds,With coral clasps and amber studs;And if these pleasures may thee move,Come live with me, and be my love.

The shepherds's swains shall dance and singFor thy delight each May morning:If these delights thy mind may move,Then live with me and be my love.

(this one written by a nororious athiest and homosexual, obviously )

this extract:

And man and woman are like the earth, that brings forth flowers in summer, and love, but underneath is rock. Older than flowers, older than ferns, older than foraminiferae older than plasm altogether is the soul of a man underneath.

And when, throughout all the wild orgasms of love slowly a gem forms, in the ancient, once-more molten rocks of two human hearts, two ancient rocks, a manís heart and a womanís, that is the crystal of peace, the slow hard jewel of trust, the sapphire of fidelity. The gem of mutual peace emerging from the wild chaos of love.

is the end of a longer (er, about 2.5 minute) modern poem Fidelity by D H Lawrence, and often read for weddings with a change to one word (orgasm): not sure if the overall sentiment suits (love = flower, dies; fidelity = gem; endures), very personal eh this?

If you want to red to each other you might try two short poems, for him:

He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven (W B Yeats )

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,Enwrought with golden and silver light,The blue and the dim and the dark clothsOf night and light and the half-light,I would spread the cloths under your feet:But I, being poor, have only my dreams;I have spread my dreams under your feet;Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

for her:

The Bargain (Sir Philip Sydney)

My true love hath my heart and I have his,By just exchange one for another given.I hold his dear, and mine he cannot miss;There never was a better bargain driven.My true love hath my heart and I have his.

His heart in me keeps him and me in one,My heart in him his thoughts and senses guides;He loves my heart, for once it was his own;I cherish his, because in me it bides.My true love hath my heart and I have his.

but I personally like:

Habitation (by Margaret Atwood)

Marriage is nota house or even a tent

it is before that, and colder:

the edge of the forest, the edgeof the desertthe unpainted stairsat the back where we squatoutside, eating popcorn

Wow newt. All of this has inspired me some.... I have decided to write my own.... im not finished quite yet but here is the start...

What is marriage? Is it the joining of two physical bodies or of two souls? Is it a religious ceremony and commitment to a higher power? Or is it something more effortless than that.

Is it simply love, REAL love expressing itself the only way it knows how. Through words and action this emotion sparks to life and takes its first breath, it becomes what it was meant to become and consumes two souls and feeds off of two bodies to sustain itself.

The act of marriage is what love IS, how it becomes REAL. It is how it announces to the world IM ALIVE! Like the birth of a life, a whole NEW life that is yet to be discovered. There are first steps taken and first words spoken. There are the teenage years and mistakes to learn from.

As Love grows, and it should never stop growing, it relies on the two souls and two bodies to nurture it. For without the constant nurturing of these, love would cease to exist. Unlike OUR physical from, as Love ages it gets healthier and wiser. Flourishing on all of the experiences of our lives, it is cherished and revered even more than on that day of its birth.

As we age, others join in, children are born and then Love becomes something greater than itself, it lives on in the lives of others, those that we call family.

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LIFE is not a race to the grave with the intention of arriving safelyin a pretty and well-preserved body, but, rather to skid in broadside,thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming--WOW! WHAT ARIDE!!!

i carry your heart with me(i carry it inmy heart) i am never without it(anywherei go you go,my dear;and whatever is doneby only me is your doing,my darling) i fearno fate(for you are my fate,my sweet) i wantno world (for beautiful you are my world,my true)and it's you are whatever a moon has always meantand whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows(here is the root of the root and the bud of the budand the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which growshigher than soul can hope or mind can hide)and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

and this one, which at first i thought, "how random", but on the day, was just right for them:from The House At Pooh CornerA.A. Milne

"Pooh, promise you won't forget about me, ever. Not even when I'm a hundred."

Pooh thought for a little."How old shall I be then?""Ninety-nine." Pooh nodded."I promise," he said.

Still with his eyes on the world, Christopher Robin put out a hand and felt for Pooh's paw.

"Pooh," said Christopher Robin earnestly, "if I - if I'm not quite" he stopped and tried again "Pooh, whatever happens, you will understand, won't you?"Understand what?""Oh, nothing." He laughed and jumped to his feet. "Come on!""Where?" said Pooh."Anywhere," said Christopher Robin.

also, Eithne Strong, "dedication", "To you / I have given. / I want to be with you / along the way you have chosen", another good one.

That e.e. cummings poem is great. I chose another of his when I got married, the one that ends with "no one, not even the rain has such small hands." But I think the one that was suggested is swell.

And by coincidence, I have carried a picture of Christopher Robin and Pooh in my day book for years in which they are having that same conversation. I never read the Pooh books until I read them to my kids. How sweet that was!

The first one was a passage from the bible that my Father read to me on my wedding day...short but sweet.

Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.

I thought this one was nice.

Because to the depths of me, I long to love one person,With all my heart, my soul, my mind, my body...

Because I need a forever friend to trust with the intimacies of me,Who won't hold them against me,Who loves me when I'm unlikable,Who sees the small child in me, andWho looks for the divine potential of me...

Because I need to cuddle in the warmth of the nightWith someone who thanks God for me,With someone I feel blessed to hold...

Because marriage means opportunityTo grow in love in friendship...

Because marriage is a disciplineTo be added to a list of achievements...

Because marriages do not fail, people failWhen they enter into marriageExpecting another to make them whole...

Because, knowing this,I promise myself to take full responsibilityFor my spiritual, mental and physical wholenessI create me,I take half of the responsibility for my marriageTogether we create our marriage...